Saranya Chapter 16 #3
“It hurt, but those marks will fade in the next couple of days. She’s not permanently marked, though the pain of it will linger. Hopefully, it’ll remind her to stay the hell away,” Butcher stated as he sat next to me. He gave me a concerned look.
“Sari, I know that was hard to watch. I’m sorry you had to see me do it. Maybe I should’ve had Cowboy take you out. I promise you, she’ll recover.”
“It was startling and unsettling, but I understand why you did it. Cowboy told me what happened to Diablo’s first wife. To prevent that from happening, a flogging is worth it.”
His expression turned tortured. “Yeah, what Amy and Brooklyn endured almost killed Diablo, and those who were here then suffered with him. No one ever imagined him recovering and having another old lady. Jauhnna has been a miracle for him. He never let Brooklyn out of his sight until she went to Tennessee to help out his younger sister, Julie’s husband, Sam, when he was hurt.
They work in the bar owned by the Warriors in Dublin Falls.
That’s how Brooklyn met her old man, Torch. ”
By then, Cowboy was back with my favorite drink. He joined us.
“Butcher, I’ve got to ask. Are you into impact play? Are you a BDSM practitioner?” Electra asked.
A smirk spread over the enforcer’s face. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Sorry, but you chose Swerve, and Sari went with Cowboy. You’ll never know.”
His teasing broke the tension, allowing us to move on to a lighter topic: her and me trying to get Butcher to tell us. His playful banter had anyone listening chuckling as he smirked.
???
Over the next four days, I kept wondering how Skylar was.
I wasn’t concerned about Michelle, except that I wanted her to stay away from the club and her cousin.
I wished I knew where Skylar lived. If I knew, I’d drop in to check on her.
There was something about her that made me feel a deep connection and a sense of protectiveness toward her, even though she was an adult close to my age.
After the eventual church night, things had gone back to normal for the rest of us.
In my case, the only outstanding issue was finding who left the note on my office door.
Maddog and Micro both reported that they had found nothing to indicate who was responsible. And there hadn’t been any new threats.
Trying to determine another cause, I stumbled upon a possibility.
We all assumed, based on the wording, that it was a man interested in me.
What if that were a misdirection? What if the author were a woman interested in Cowboy?
Telling me to get rid of Cowboy would achieve the same result and leave the way clear for someone to try to become his woman.
When I mentioned that idea to him, Cowboy wanted to dismiss it, but he couldn’t say with absolute certainty that I was wrong. So he asked Micro to check on those who had come to the compound over the past three months. The first one on the list was Michelle.
Having made that decision the night before to have Micro do that, I felt better headed into work this morning. Cowboy still insisted on accompanying me and asked that I wait for him to head home. I thought it was unnecessary, but I complied with his request.
For a Thursday, the office wasn’t as booked as usual in the afternoon.
I was thankful it wasn’t when I received a request from Jordan, Dad’s partner, before lunch.
He asked if I had time to help him with a complicated case.
He would’ve asked my dad, but he and Mom had taken a long weekend away.
I readily agreed and requested that he send me the address.
It was a fair distance to their coverage area, so I planned to be gone for the rest of the day.
I had no idea how long it might take us.
I asked Olivia to reschedule the rest of today’s visits to tomorrow or next week. With that in play, I called Cowboy.
“Hey, baby, to what do I owe hearing your beautiful voice in the middle of my day?” he asked as he answered.
“Well, aren’t you a sweet talker? I don’t need a reason, just like I didn’t yesterday, and the day before, and the day before,” I reminded him.
“Ah, you’re right. Just loving me is enough.”
“That’s right. I hope I’m not disturbing you, but I have to let you know of a schedule change for today.”
“Alright, what is it?”
“Jordan called. He has a tough case he needs my help with. You know Mom and Dad are away. My schedule is light this afternoon, so I’m headed out to assist. He’s sending me the address, which I’ll text to you. I’m taking Owen with me as promised. I don’t know how late we’ll be.”
“Great. Why couldn’t it have been your dad?” he grumbled.
“Honey, I know Jordan is irritating, and you don’t like him, but he helped me out when I needed it. The least I can do is help him in return, especially with Dad gone.”
“I know, but I don’t like the guy. Just make sure you stick close to Owen. When I get off work, I’ll head to where you’re at, so Owen can leave. Have him drive himself. I should be able to cut out by four at the latest.”
I hated for him to leave his work early, but if he wasn’t busy, it was preferable to making poor Owen stay possibly into overtime.
“Sounds like a plan. Ride safe. I love you. See you later.”
“Drive carefully. Love you,” he answered before we hung up.
I barely put down the phone when it dinged with a text message. It had to be the address Jordan was sending. I picked up my phone, saw I was right, then forwarded it to my man before going to tell Owen we were leaving.